A naturalistic study on the effectiveness of long‐acting antipsychotics in an early intervention program for patients with recent‐onset psychosis

Aim To evaluate the impact of long‐acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIs) on the risk of hospitalization and the length of hospitalization in the setting of an early intervention program for patients with recent‐onset psychosis. Methods Observational, retrospective study conducted under routine clinical practice conditions. We included all patients admitted from July 2015 to April 2020 to the Early Intervention Program in Psychosis. We analysed the incidence of hospitalization and hospitalization days before and after treatment with LAIs and calculated the incidence rate ratio (IRR). We also compared the outcomes of patients treated with LAIs with those of the patients maintained on oral antipsychotics using a binomial negative regression analysis. Results A total of 170 patients were included in the program. Of them, 34 (20%) received LAIs (aripiprazole [n = 22], and paliperidone/risperidone [n = 12]). There was an 89% reduction in the incidence of hospitalizations after treatment with LAIs (IRR 0.11, 95%CI 0.05–0.21; p